In open letter to Putin, Zelenskyy calls for meeting and ceasefire

Key points

• Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in a rare open letter to the Russian leader Thursday (June 4, 2026), shortly after the Kremlin chief had conceded Moscow needed to strengthen its air defences following a spate of Ukrainian attacks.
• U.S. President Donald Trump, who has pushed both sides to end the conflict and boasted he could end the war within a day of taking office, said a face-to-face Putin-Zelenskyy meeting would be "great" — but pushed both sides to compromise.
• The Kremlin said Mr. Putin had not yet been shown the letter, but that Mr. Zelenskyy could meet Mr. Putin in Moscow "any time" — a proposal that the Ukrainian leader preemptively ruled out in his letter.
• "Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you.
• I am proposing a meeting," Mr. Zelenskyy said in the letter.